What Happened In The Brett Kavanaugh Hearing

Actor and activist Alyssa Milano is in the audience as a guest of Dianne Feinstein. Milano popularized the #MeToo hashtag online last October, but the origin of “Me too” stems from the work of activist Tarana Burke, who has worked with survivors who are young women of color for years. But contextualizing this hearing in terms of #MeToo won’t resonate with Republicans. According to a survey by YouGov/HuffPo, Republicans hold a much less favorable view of the movement, and more than half think “the movement has gone too far.” Republican women are slightly more supportive of the movement then Republican men.

“The Supreme Court must never be viewed as a partisan institution. The Justices on the Supreme Court do not sit on opposite sides of an aisle.” — Brett Kavanaugh, Sept. 4, 2018.

When Kavanaugh talks about the need for due process, he’s talking to Republicans. They’ve used a lot of legal language — like “due process” and “presumption of innocence” — to talk about how Kavanaugh should be treated, despite the fact that (as we’ve heard many times today) this is a political proceeding and he’s not on trial, which means this kind of language doesn’t really apply.